John Davies, also called John Davies of Hereford (born c. 1565, Hereford, Herefordshire, England—died July 1618, London) English poet and writing master whose chief work was Microcosmos (1603), a didactic religious treatise.

John Davies, detail of an engraving, 1631

Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.

Davies settled in Oxford and became known as the best penman of his day. As well as other religious verse treatises, he wrote Wittes Pilgrimage . . . (c. 1605), a collection of love sonnets; and Humours Heav’n on Earth; with the Civile Warres of Death and Fortune (1609), a description of the plague. The epigrams of his Scourge of Folly (c. 1610) contain current notices of his eminent contemporaries, including Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare. Davies also composed a popular writing manual, The Writing Schoole-Master (16th ed., 1636).